I had an interesting reporting scenario posed to me that I thought I would share! (The actual business information has been changed to protect the innocent.) In this scenario, we own multiple stores that sell a dozen or so products. We would like a report that shows the type of products that each store has sold on a particular day. Keep in mind that we could start stocking new products at any time, and we would still like our report to work.
Here is our existing data for the database:
| 3/4/2010 | Sports-R-Us | Virginia | Softball Glove |
| 12/15/2009 | Sports-R-Us | Virginia | Tennis Racquet |
| 12/15/2009 | Sports-R-Us | Virginia | Dartboard |
| 6/6/2009 | Sports-R-Us | Virginia | Fishing Pole |
| 6/6/2009 | Games And More | Virginia | Canoe |
| 2/21/2010 | Games And More | Maryland | Pool Table |
| 2/21/2010 | Games And More | Maryland | Golf Bag |
| 2/21/2010 | Games And More | Maryland | Canoe |
| 2/21/2010 | Games And More | Maryland | Softball Glove |
| 2/21/2010 | Games And More | Maryland | Football |
This scenario really comes into play when you have many different and unknown items in your column grouping, and you need to show them in a compact space.
We can use the following query to simulate this situation:
SELECT '03/04/2010' as TransactionDate, 'Sports-R-Us' as StoreName, 'Virginia' as StateProvince, 'Softball Glove' as Product
UNION ALL SELECT '12/15/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Tennis Racquet'
UNION ALL SELECT '12/15/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Dartboard'
UNION ALL SELECT '06/06/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Fishing Pole'
UNION ALL SELECT '06/06/2009', 'Games And More', 'Virginia', 'Canoe'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Pool Table'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Golf Bag'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Canoe'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Softball Glove'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Football'
At first glance, this seems like a simple matrix scenario. If we create a dataset using our query, we can use the fields in a matrix that contains a detail grouping for our rows on TransactionDate, StoreName, and StateProvince with Product as a dynamic column grouping at the end. Unfortunately, this will result in a lot of blank spaces for the Product columns, as the data per row will only display for the associated group. If you see a matrix that looks like this, you may have a similar situation!
To get the desired layout, we need to make three changes to our report. First of all, modify the query to give a ranking per every group, which means we get to use one of my favorite clauses: OVER. In our scenario, we will partition based on TransactionDate, StoreName, and StateProvince and order by Product. Here is our new query:
SELECT TransactionDate, StoreName, StateProvince, Product
, ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( PARTITION BY TransactionDate, StoreName, StateProvince ORDER BY Product ) AS ColumnGroupNumber
FROM
(
SELECT '03/04/2010' AS TransactionDate, 'Sports-R-Us' AS StoreName, 'Virginia' AS StateProvince, 'Softball Glove' AS Product
UNION ALL SELECT '12/15/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Tennis Racquet'
UNION ALL SELECT '12/15/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Dartboard'
UNION ALL SELECT '06/06/2009', 'Sports-R-Us', 'Virginia', 'Fishing Pole'
UNION ALL SELECT '06/06/2009', 'Games And More', 'Virginia', 'Canoe'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Pool Table'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Golf Bag'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Canoe'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Softball Glove'
UNION ALL SELECT '02/21/2010', 'Games And More', 'Maryland', 'Football'
) AS OriginalQuery
The second change that we need to make is in the matrix itself. On the Product column grouping, we change the field so that it groups on our new "ColumnGroupNumber" field. Don't change the field in the detail row, as we would still like to show each item. Once we have made that change, every set of Products will start in the first column.
Our final change is to change the header expression so that it only shows the header on the first column and doesn't repeat fifty times. We do this by modifying the expression of the textbox to this:
=IIF(Fields!ColumnGroupNumber.Value = 1, "Product", "")
When we put all of the pieces together, we end up with a report that looks pretty darn good!
Comments
Nice Post easy to understand & follow.
Thx 4 the info,
Catto
Easy to understand. Great Stuff..
Just wondering, is there any other way to possibly do this without changing the sql query to use the over and partitioning? Like is there anything you can do in reporting services alone to achieve the same thing?
Thanks again.
Depending on your need, you may be able to use some of the logic from a great post from Stacia Misner: http://blog.datainspirations.com/2010/05/09/reporting-services-its-a-wrap/
HTH,
Jessica
We have a requirement like :
Start Time End Time Appointment details
8:00AM 5:00PM ABC
Name Date Name Date
A1 12-5-2012 A2 12-5-2012
A3 12-5-2012 A4 12-5-2012
A5 13-5-2012
can you please suggest. how do we design the rdl.l
I am doing a large application where I am using column grouping in my reports. Unfortunately, the performance is pitifully slow, and my customer is complaining about it. As an example, if they run a report for a 24 hour period, it takes ~10 minutes to return (~800 "pages" of data). If they run it for a month, it may never return!
The query itself for a 24 hour period returns in ~20 seconds. The balance of the time is pivoting and generating the report.
Do you have any suggestions as what I could do?
Thanks!
I recommend that you post your question to the Reporting Services MSDN forum: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlreportingservices/threads. You'll get more feedback, and the answers will help others in the future!
Best,
Jessica